


Leftovers

by Thomas McQuinn (AtrydvonAschoen)



Category: Homestuck, MS Paint Adventures
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-11
Updated: 2010-08-11
Packaged: 2017-10-11 01:18:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/106679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AtrydvonAschoen/pseuds/Thomas%20McQuinn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sollux seems put off by something. Nepeta has been watching him for some time, and finally works up the courage to ask him about it when they have a moment alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Leftovers

Sollux frowed at his computer screen blankly, two-toned eyes focused on nothing at all as the spirograph screensaver spun lazily before him, his head propped with his hands laced into the hair around his horns. Nobody bothered to mention to him that it was a bad idea to do so, not since Karkat of all people pointed it out two days prior and got a bucketful of vitriol for his trouble. When he wasn't digging through wires, he could be found, staring flatly at the screensaver, as if waiting for the multicolored spirograph to deliver a message. Some speculated he slept with his eyes open.

Nepeta thought differently. From her position curled atop a pile of rags in a small corner of their laboratory computer hall, she watched the ongoings of the main room with marked disinterest. Since the end of the game, the disappearance of their lususprites, and their escape to the Veil, she hadn't been very cheerful or active. It was obvious why: the place was a gray, dull, lifeless rock in the middle of nowhere. Kanaya's attempts at brightening things up with a little gardening helped a bit, but nothing could change the fact that, for whatever reason, the resident clawkind-weilding huntress was uncharacteristically glum. She wouldn't even role-play with Terezi anymore, which worried a number of them even greater. Nepeta not role-playing was like Karkat not screaming obscenities every time he tripped over a loose wire, or something. It just didn't happen.

She didn't do much at all anymore, just sitting in her corner and doodling on her tablet on occasion. She didn't even log into Trollian any more, which annoyed Equius to no end, but at least she spent most of her time out where everyone else was. She seemed to be doing alright, she still wore that silly blue hood-hat of hers, still had those blue footpaw slippers and tail, and whenever he greeted her, she was quick with a smile, but he could tell something was off. 

She used to be open about what her tablet showed. Now, however, she hid it whenever anyone got anywhere near. Vriska almost lost her good arm for trying to force the subject. Terezi didn't even bother to try and figure out either. The only thing anyone could figure was that whatever she was up to, or whatever bothered her, had to do with Sollux in particular. She always seemed to be watching him, almost expectantly, like she thought he was going to get up and start dancing a jig if she looked away or something. Those who knew her a little less than others might've called it predatory. Terezi once stated it was more like how a featherbeast watches a cat: it knows that the cat is of no threat, but one wrong twitch of the tail and feathers were going to fly.

Sollux abruptly moved, the first in several hours, turning listlessly in his computer chair and standing up, ignorant to the odd feathered effect that three hours the same position had done to his hair. Scratching at the side of his neck, he shuffled out of the computer room, a pair of large orange eyes following him. True to what some of the others expected, moments after he rounded the corner out of sight, Nepeta's tablet was tucked away into her green overcoat, and she was up and moving, padding silently after him. Karkat considered bitching at her about it, but when he opened his mouth, he found a cane crammed into it before he could say a thing. The look on Terezi's face was one that brooked no argument.

Whatever was happening, they were going to let it happen.

\---

Sollux uttered a flat sigh as he opened the refrigeration unit where they kept their food. Much of it was alchemized from the contents of their houses; various little snapshots of the eating habits of the different blood-castes. Pushing aside a few bottles of Faygo, he withdrew a small container of what appeared to be something that the humans might call 'spaghetti'. The fact that it was food was all that registered in his mind as he plunked it into the heating unit beside the fridge and jabbed an arbitrary time on the button. 

Turning, he found his gaze drawn to something he hadn't noticed on coming in: Nepeta, standing in the doorway, watching him with an unreadable expression. He slid his glasses from his nose, idly wiped at them with the hem of his shirt, and slid them back on. Yep, still there. Having determined she wasn't another case of his vision twofold going whacko, he turned a chair backwards at the table and sat, resting his chin on his arms. Far be it from him to tell her where to go.

She didn't say anything, simply standing there, watching him. He didn't pay any attention to her at first, simply waiting for his food to heat.

The silence was so thick Karkat's blunt little nub-horns could cut it.

Sollux allowed himself a momentary half-smirk at the thought, and heard a brief hitch of breath. The smirk became a frown and a quirked eyebrow, directed to Nepeta, who he only just realized had made a move to sit at the table. She'd probably seen the smile and thought-- "Oh. Uh. No, go ahead," he mumbled, gesturing ineffectually. "Ii jusst-- thought of ssomethiing ssiilly, that'ss all."

She finished sitting, that wide-eyed gaze still focused on him. Now that he thought about it, it was a bit disconcerting. "What--"

"You're not mad at them?" He blinked owlishly at her over the rims of his glasses, and nudged them up with a finger, shaking his head. 

"What are you talkiing about?" He straightened slightly. Nepeta tilted her head. Had she misread him?

"Aradia and Equius. You're not mad at them," she said simply. It was a blunt statement to be sure, but he'd heard far, far worse from Karkat. He shook his head, looking down at the table. 

"No, not really. Sshould Ii be? Iit'ss not liike iit would do any good." He couldn't see why it was so easy for him to say this to her. Maybe it was that perpetually cute, open expression. _Pssh, cute. What, are you going two start lussting after her now?_ **Or maybe you always diid?** He shook his head, and jumped slightly at the beeping of the heating unit indicating his food was ready. Rising from the seat, he slid open a drawer from the mishmashed cabinet and selected a bent fork, bumping it shut with a hip and opening the heating unit.

"You just seem like there's something you're not saying. Something you're afraid to admit, or something," She suggested. He stopped in the middle of pushing the food about with the fork, and his expression went from flat to frown in half a second. So that's what this was about. He didn't want to have another one of these arguments. It was bad enough when he let Karkat drag him into shouting matches. Sitting, he looked at her levelly across the table.

"Iif you're iimplying that Ii sshould be angry that sshe'ss happy wiith ssomeone elsse, Ii'm going two head you off there. Iif you weren't aware, due two my own sstupiidiity, Ii wound up kiilliing her. Not becausse of that cursse Ii put on Karkat, but becausse Ii allowed mysself to be miisslead, controlled. Maniipulated. Ii wass weak, and sshe diied by my hand because of iit." He turned his gaze to his food, twirling some noodles around the fork. "Sshe'ss ssafe now, wiith Equiiuss." The words tasted bitter in his mouth. So did the leftovers.   
"That'ss all there iiss two ssay on the matter."

  



End file.
